louisheld

This is a wonderful photograph – rich in detail and personality! Liszt's Liebesträume ("A Dream of Love") – performed yesterday on a magnificent world stage in Oslo – is still playing in my mind, which makes this portrait all-the-more intimate and compelling. Louis Held, the photographer, was a protégé of Franz Liszt [1] – that must have been fun and amazing!  

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Classical Composers, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

@Pixel Wrangler: thanks for the info on Held.

Beautiful Photo, taken in 1872 or later. Louis Held met him in 1872 and studied with him in Weimar.

The date, ca. 1830, is presumably based on the visible appareance and the assumed age of Liszt (b. 1811). Maybe this is correct. I have no insight in the source of this estimation, and im not qualified to compare this with other lithos showing Liszt at an age of ca. 19 years. The lithography is created at a later date. It is signed by Josef Kriehuber, lithographer from Vienna, with the year 1846. The publiction in form of this postcard must also be from a later date for two reasons. First, In 1846 the term Hofphotograph (court photographer) wasnt established. Second, the publisher Louis Held was born 1851. He opened his first studio in 1876 in Liegnitz (today: Legnica) and moved to Weimar in 1882. I dont know when he acclaimed the title Hofphotograph, but he lost the title in 1905. This means the publication is from between 1882+X and 1905.